Journal of immunotherapy
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Journal of immunotherapy · Nov 2010
Novel management of pruritus in patients treated with IL-2 for metastatic renal cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma.
Pruritus has been a side effect, associated with several biologic response modifiers, most commonly interferons and interleukins. Reports of pruritus are anecdotal and have not been a focus of attention. Itch fibers are essentially pain fibers, and gabapentin is used for neuropathic pain. ⋯ Patients grouped into mild eosinophilia (eosinophil count<1500/mL) and moderate to severe eosinophilia (eosinophil count>1500/mL) during HDIL-2 therapy was evaluated for pruritus. χ² test for independence of variable between degree of eosinophilia and pruritus was 0.714 with no statistically significant correlation. To summarize, gabapentin is used in our facility with excellent response against pruritus. Hypothesizing the likely mechanism of pruritus in patients treated with IL-2, we suggest that gabapentin should be considered an effective and safe treatment in IL-2-related pruritus, and this concept could be applied to pruritus encountered in similar clinical settings.